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IOUR NAME AND YOUR COAT OF
ARMS -- Priceless Gifts From History
Until about 1100 A.D. most people in
Europe had only one name (This is still true
in some primitive countries today). As the
population increased it became awkward to
live in a village wherein perhaps 1/3 of the
males were named John, another sizable
percentage named William, and so forth.
And so, to distinguish one John from
another a second name was needed. There
were four primary sources for these second
names. They were: a man's occupation,
his location, his father's name or some
peculiar characteristic of his. Here are
some examples.
Occupation: The local house builder, food
preparer, grain grinder and suit maker
would be named respectively: John Car-
penter, John Cook, John Miller, and John
Taylor.
Location: The John who, lived over the hill
became know as John Overhill, the one
who dwelled near a stream might be dub-
bed John Brook or perhaps John Atbrook.
Patronymical (father's name): Many of
these surnames can be recognized by the
termination-son, such  as Williamson,
Jackson, etc. Some endings used by other
countries to indicate "son" are: Armenian
- ian, Danish and Norwegian - sen, As this practice grew more popular, it be-
Finnish - nen, Greek - pulos, Spanish came more and more likely that two
- ez and Polish - wiecz. Prefixes denoting knights unknown to each other might be
"son" are the Welsh - Ap, the Scotch & using the same insignia. To prevent this,
Irish - Mac and the Norman - Fitz. The records were kept that granted the right to
Irish 0' incidentally denotes grandfather. a particular pattern to a particular knight.
His family also shared his right to display
Characteristics: An unusually small person these arms. In some instances, these re-
might be labeled Small, Short, Little or cords have been preserved and/or com-
Lytle. A large man might be named Large, piled into book form. The records list the
Long, Lang or Longfellow. Many persons family name and an exact description of the
having characteristics of a certain animal coat-of-arms granted to that family.
would be given the animal name. Ex-
amples: a sly person might be named Fox, Interest in heraldry is increasing daily.
a filthy person - Hogg, a good swimmer - This is especially true among peole who
Fish, etc.                           have a measure of family pride and who
resent attempts of our society to reduce
In addition to needing an extra name for each individual to a series of numbers
identification, one occupational group stored somewhere in a computer. In our
found it necessary to go a step further. matter-of-fact day and age, a coat-of-arms
The fighting man: The fighting man of the is one of the rare devices remaining that
middle ages wore a metal suit of armor for can provide an incentive to preserve our
protection. Since this suit of armor in- heritage. We hope you'll agree that it is
cluded a helmet that completely covered much more than just a wall decoration.
the head, a knight in full battle dress was
unrecognizable. To prevent friend from If you are interested in a more in-depth
attacking friend during the heat of battle it study of the subject of this paper, may we
became necessary for each knight to suggest you contact the genealogical
somehow identify himself. Many knights department of any fair sized public library.
accomplished this by painting colorful We especially recommend the "Dictionary
patterns on their battle shields. These of American Family Names" published by
patterns were also woven into cloth sur- harper & Row and also "The Surnames of
coats which were worn over a suit of armor, Scotland" available from the New York
Thus was born the term "coat-of-arms". Public Library as excellent sources on the
meaning of surnames.
Friday, May 9, 1930, SJ: William Junemann narrowly
escaped death Tuesday. Wm Junemann, town of Day,
while dragging with a tractor Tuesday evening tipped
backward from the seat falling between a spiked-tooth
harrow. Mr. Junemann was finally able to lift the drag on
his back and shoulders and extricate himself. His clothes
were literally torn from his body. One of the spikes caught
in his mouth tearing his lower lip and muscles of right side
of jaw into shreds. A physician from Stratford was called
and took him to his office where 36 stitches were taken to
repair the laceration. At present Mr. Junemann is doing
as well as can be expected.
August 18, 1916, SJ: The class of 1916 that was confirmed
last Sunday by Rev. Thom of Marshfield consisted of the
following pupils: Freda Redo, Mayme Happle, Elizabeth
Jaeckel, Ester Zeigler, Tony Schuster, Minnie Stewert,
Louis Zimmerman, William Oertle, Herman Oertle, Henry
Punswick, Eugene Schlotthour, Fred Haves, George
Albrect, Rhinard Nibower, Rhinard Rink, Albert Exnee.
School started in District No. 5 last Monday with Mr.
Arthur Garkee of Athens as teacher.
August 11, 1916, SJ: Mr. Marty, Leo Seitz, Edwin
Schmid, and several others left last Sunday morning for
Dakota.
August 11, 1916, SJ: John Stark is seriously ill.
Nancy HalbertI
August 11, 1916, SJ: Victor Brausch, formerly of this
community died last week in Dakota. He had been
married a month.
The current photographs for this book were taken by
Bob Zimmerman and Patti Laessig.
1,376 hours were spent by the author on this book. 808
hours (101 8 - hour days) were paid the author through the
C.E.T.A. Adult Work Experience program at $3.35 per
hour. The remaining 568 hours were donated.   Not
included in the hours listed above were the many, many
donated hours of work by the following people: Peggy
Griesbach of the town of Day, Collen Angel-Berger of
Marshfield, Bob Zimmerman of the town of Day, Muriel
Berger of Port Edwards, Louise Doescher of the town of
Eau Pleine, Rosie Holtz of Rudolph, Sue Weber of the
town of McMillan, and Sharon Laessig of Marshfield.
September 1, 1916, SJ: It pays for every saloon keeper at
both ends too, to have full equipment license. We heard
the other day that one of our Rangeline saloon keepers was
found short of the wholesale license and had to count out
49 one dollar bills and one silver dollar to meet the
demand of the officer.
March 29, 1918, SJ: Peter Zeigler of Rozellville sold his 80
acre farm with stock and Machinery to Louis Spindler, Jr.
this week.